Meeting will discuss oil spill fines plan

Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 10:30 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 10:30 p.m.

Locals can weigh in on plans to spend what could be billions of dollars in BP oil-spill fine money on coastal protection and restoration projects.

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council will host a meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center, 346 Civic Center Blvd., Houma. That meeting will be the first of several in the Gulf Coast region aimed at gathering input on the council’s planned path forward for spending restoration dollars.

The Restore Act, passed by Congress last year, dedicates 80 percent of Clean Water Act fines from the oil spill to five Gulf Coast states. The Restore Act established the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council to develop and oversee a plan to distribute 60 percent of the oil spill fines that will be sent to the coast.

The council is chaired by the secretary of commerce and includes governors of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It also includes secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, the Army, Homeland Security and the Interior, plus the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Companies involved with the spill can be fined from $1,000 to $4,300 per barrel leaked after the 2010 deadly explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That could add up to fines of between $5 billion and $20 billion.

A seven-page guiding document was released by the council last month to fulfill requirements in the Restore Act that a proposed plan be published 180 days after the bill became law.

The document describes the actions so far in developing a comprehensive plan to spend the fines and details what will be included in the plan. That includes a list of projects that would meet the goals of the Restore Act, a description of how the trust money will be made available over the next 10 years and a three-year project and program priority list.

The draft plan will be released for public comment in the spring. The plan itself will be released in July.

The report is available at restorethegulf.gov.

Of the money going to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, 30 percent of it will be divvied up for restoration and protection. The other 30 percent will be sent directly to the states. But the money sent to the states must be spent in a way that’s consistent with the goals of the council’s plan.

Another 35 percent of the Restore Act money will be split equally between Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for environmental and economic recovery along the coast.

Louisiana will automatically get 7 percent of the 35 percent dedicated directly to states. Of that, 4.9 percent of the fine money will go to the state government and 2.1 percent will be divided between the state’s 20 coastal zone parishes, including Terrebonne and Lafourche. More money will be awarded to parishes with more oiled shoreline and larger populations.

The final 5 percent of money goes to research on the Gulf fisheries, including 2.5 percent for science, observation, monitoring and technology programs, and 2.5 percent to create the Centers of Excellence Research Grants, which will offer grants to research a variety of Gulf issues.

But while the act broadly sketches out how the spill fines will be spent and what is required to get the money, officials said the specifics are still up in the air.

“The council was tasked with coming up with a comprehensive plan within a very unreasonable amount of time,” said Nic Matherne, Terrebonne Parish coastal restoration director. “It’s unfortunate that there’s not much to comment on.”

Planning is made even more difficult because no one knows when BP will choose to settle with the government and how much the company will agree to settle for, Matherne said.

“We have had very little guidance and will continue to have little guidance until a settlement is clear. Right now we don’t know if we should plan for $1 million or $100 million,” Matherne said.

Matherne said the parish hopes to spend its local oil spill fine money on projects that will restore wetlands in the eastern portion of the parish between Bayou Terrebonne and Lafourche.

“That area was completely left out of the state master plan except for some projects we asked to be included,” Matherne said. “And the state has expressed that they will only fund projects in the master plan.”

Matherne said the parish would look to do some kind of marsh creation in the area with a freshwater enhancement project to sustain it.

Lafourche Parish Manager Archie Chaisson III said Lafourche Parish will likely rely on its new parish master plan to choose its projects. The parish explored old state and federal projects on the books that have been waiting for money. Then it vetted these projects to prioritize them.

“Planning with an unknown checkbook is kind of hard,” Chaisson said.

But he added parish officials have heard they could get anything from $5 million to $25 million in oil spill fine money to spend on restoration.

The parish would like to spend its local spill dollars on projects restoring the western side of Lafourche Parish because it was left out of the state’s master plan for restoration and protection, Chaisson said.

The parish also wants to focus on building projects to protect the vulnerable western side of the south Lafourche levee system.

“We’ve invested a lot of money in building this system, so we want to protect it,” Chaisson said.

Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.

<p>Locals can weigh in on plans to spend what could be billions of dollars in BP oil-spill fine money on coastal protection and restoration projects.</p><p>The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council will host a meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center, 346 Civic Center Blvd., Houma. That meeting will be the first of several in the Gulf Coast region aimed at gathering input on the council's planned path forward for spending restoration dollars.</p><p>The Restore Act, passed by Congress last year, dedicates 80 percent of Clean Water Act fines from the oil spill to five Gulf Coast states. The Restore Act established the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council to develop and oversee a plan to distribute 60 percent of the oil spill fines that will be sent to the coast.</p><p>The council is chaired by the secretary of commerce and includes governors of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It also includes secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, the Army, Homeland Security and the Interior, plus the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.</p><p>Companies involved with the spill can be fined from $1,000 to $4,300 per barrel leaked after the 2010 deadly explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That could add up to fines of between $5 billion and $20 billion.</p><p>A seven-page guiding document was released by the council last month to fulfill requirements in the Restore Act that a proposed plan be published 180 days after the bill became law.</p><p>The document describes the actions so far in developing a comprehensive plan to spend the fines and details what will be included in the plan. That includes a list of projects that would meet the goals of the Restore Act, a description of how the trust money will be made available over the next 10 years and a three-year project and program priority list.</p><p>The draft plan will be released for public comment in the spring. The plan itself will be released in July. </p><p>The report is available at restorethegulf.gov.</p><p>Of the money going to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, 30 percent of it will be divvied up for restoration and protection. The other 30 percent will be sent directly to the states. But the money sent to the states must be spent in a way that's consistent with the goals of the council's plan.</p><p>Another 35 percent of the Restore Act money will be split equally between Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for environmental and economic recovery along the coast.</p><p>Louisiana will automatically get 7 percent of the 35 percent dedicated directly to states. Of that, 4.9 percent of the fine money will go to the state government and 2.1 percent will be divided between the state's 20 coastal zone parishes, including Terrebonne and Lafourche. More money will be awarded to parishes with more oiled shoreline and larger populations.</p><p>The final 5 percent of money goes to research on the Gulf fisheries, including 2.5 percent for science, observation, monitoring and technology programs, and 2.5 percent to create the Centers of Excellence Research Grants, which will offer grants to research a variety of Gulf issues.</p><p>But while the act broadly sketches out how the spill fines will be spent and what is required to get the money, officials said the specifics are still up in the air.</p><p>“The council was tasked with coming up with a comprehensive plan within a very unreasonable amount of time,” said Nic Matherne, Terrebonne Parish coastal restoration director. “It's unfortunate that there's not much to comment on.”</p><p>Planning is made even more difficult because no one knows when BP will choose to settle with the government and how much the company will agree to settle for, Matherne said.</p><p>“We have had very little guidance and will continue to have little guidance until a settlement is clear. Right now we don't know if we should plan for $1 million or $100 million,” Matherne said.</p><p>Matherne said the parish hopes to spend its local oil spill fine money on projects that will restore wetlands in the eastern portion of the parish between Bayou Terrebonne and Lafourche.</p><p>“That area was completely left out of the state master plan except for some projects we asked to be included,” Matherne said. “And the state has expressed that they will only fund projects in the master plan.”</p><p>Matherne said the parish would look to do some kind of marsh creation in the area with a freshwater enhancement project to sustain it.</p><p>Lafourche Parish Manager Archie Chaisson III said Lafourche Parish will likely rely on its new parish master plan to choose its projects. The parish explored old state and federal projects on the books that have been waiting for money. Then it vetted these projects to prioritize them. </p><p>“Planning with an unknown checkbook is kind of hard,” Chaisson said. </p><p>But he added parish officials have heard they could get anything from $5 million to $25 million in oil spill fine money to spend on restoration.</p><p>The parish would like to spend its local spill dollars on projects restoring the western side of Lafourche Parish because it was left out of the state's master plan for restoration and protection, Chaisson said.</p><p>The parish also wants to focus on building projects to protect the vulnerable western side of the south Lafourche levee system.</p><p>“We've invested a lot of money in building this system, so we want to protect it,” Chaisson said.</p><p>Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.</p>